Tuesday, 31 March 2026

Night Of The Living Chickens - comics by kids


Well hasn't March been a busy month for visiting schools? And taking us right up to the last day of the month here are the final few from Somerset, Hampshire, Birmingham and Guildford.


You know that thing where a school is so small you can teach all of them in one morning? Such was the case with Vernham Dean. A delight to teach every kid from year 3 to 6, but frustrating to know I'll have to wait years for them to grow a new school full before I can ever return.


A couple of fun comics from Long Sutton near Taunton, which I was returning to after a few hours break. A school that managed to take longer to get home from than ones on the other side of the country, thanks to the bridge being closed.


Another one-off class saw me at the Library of Birmingham doing an ostensibly Shakespeare themed class. If you look closely at the flipchart drawing above you'll see I snuck lots of Shakespearean quotes into the usual-suspects drawings of comic characters, and of course I showed them my Shakespearean books. But apart from that, it was business as usual, with which they were more than happy.


The month was rounded off nicely with a return visit to the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford where the kids came up with a couple of inspiring titles that I loved drawing.

The celebrities these six groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Cristiano Ronaldo, John Cena, Tom Cruise, Harry Styles, Bob Dylan, and Billie Eilish.



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Thursday, 19 March 2026

I stayed in a circus wagon - and other online ramblings

March 17: Most novel place I’ve stayed on my travels recently: a restored circus wagon in a field in North Yorkshire.
The smallest space I’ve slept in since camping with the scouts, it’s the size of a fold out bed, with only a tiny fan heater to warm it and fairy lights to light it. Rocking in the wind and freezing at night, the toilet and showers are on the other side of the field , and it was the coldest night of the month. No TV or WiFi.

I had a great night, really did. Makes a change from a Holiday Inn Express.

*****

March 17: Anyone catch me on BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime just now, talking Dennis The Menace's 75th anniversary? A cough and a spit, but nice to be asked.
I can't find it on the website, and you're not missing much, but it was fun.


“Perceptive, droll and frequently scurrilous” - Alan Moore.
That’s going on a book cover!

******

March 9
Ayatollah how many?
(This joke brought to you from the mid 1980s)




Bugger! Thought Bubble was my best weekend for book sales, out of the “proper” comicons last year (though The Lakes and Macc Pow beat it for individual best days.) Being in the Kids Zone near The Phoenix was a big buzz. I was honoured to have made the cut in 2025 ( and before that in 2021) and appreciate how lucky I was. But sadly, this time, it seems other sexier artists and self publishers look like being a bigger draw than me.
Very sad, TB really is the party that you feel you want to be at, and I’ll miss being there. But I failed triage from 22-24 and made it back in 25. Here’s hoping I appeal again in 27.
(If anyone is up for table sharing, I am open to swallowing my pride and shrinking my display. Though beware, I am me, with all that entails).
Ironically I type this having just finished work in a school in North Yorkshire. I’m virtually a local. Sorry Harrogate, see you some other year.


I’m a childhood hero!

****

Did anyone else watch Dirty Business? It should have been this year’s Post Office Scandal, dramatising a scandal bigger even than the Post Office, affecting many more people (ie all of us) and I’ve heard nothing.
To be sure, being on Channel 4 leaves you pretty invisible these days compared to being on ITV at the start of the year.
Highly recommended if you want to be left with impotent rage and no idea what to do about it.
Seen 'Dirty Business'? Watch it here on Channel 4:

****

I’ve got a (slightly flawed) Tea Time Theme Time for you. What do these three songs have in common?
Montego Bay by Bobby Bloom
Making Plans for Nigel by XTC
I’m In Love With The Girl on the Manchester Virgin Megastore Checkout Desk by The Freshies
(Caveat/ bonus clue: this question really only works between 1999 and 2016, I have discovered)

Correct answer, guessed by two of you: all 3 records mention defunct British companies:
BOAC in Montego Bay
British Steel in Nigel (defunct from 1999 till 2016)
Virgin Megastore


Happiness is seeing your old childhood house is for sale - and they’ve kept the mural you painted nearly fifty years ago
My Mum and Dads house, which we sold in 2018, still features the Conan mural that I painted in 1978. This has survived the new owners lowering the ceiling!
(They’ve added an insulating layer, much needed cos that 1960s roof was as thin as a shed. You can see it’s eaten into Conan’s arm).

*****

March 12: Writer friends (or performers with merch), a question: I'm doing some classes next month at a theatre. They're wanting to take 25% of the sales of my books, even though I sell the books myself directly to the punters after the class and they don't go through their box office. Is this usual?
Given that I only make 50% profit on any of my books, that's a hefty slice. Has anyone else come across this? It's only the second time it's been asked of me, the other time also being a theatre, and even there I was able to negotiate them out of it for my return visit. Discuss, anecdotes please.

****

March 12: Fun fact I just learned: which future pop star designed this album cover, for Bob Marley’s Catch A Fire? (Don’t spoil it if you know, or if you just read the same article in today’s paper that I did, just leave a clue to show you know. If you genuinely don’t know, then guess away)

Answer: Leo Sayer


Anyone know anything about Blogger? And, I assume, Ai bots. Overnight my blog has gone from having a couple of thousand views in a day to suddenly having 20,000.

*****

March 5
I can only imagine the shocked expression on Kristi Noem's face.




March 11: Reader, I got removed.


March 2: Past meets the present, 30 years on. I just did a phone interview with James Cannon on BBC Radio Surrey. And who should be staring down at me from the wall of my studio? Only that self same James Cannon, on the gold disc that we won 30 years ago when I wrote the charity novelty song that was sold for the Christmas Appeal on his GWR show.
I was the "funny" guest on the show for a short while. Nostalgic fun, plugging tomorrow's Comic Art Masterclass in Staines.

*****

Feb 28: “Tonight there’ll be a moments silence at the Troubadour”

Aah, Neil Sedaka’s gone. Loved his stuff at the time. Only recently discovered he recorded that 1970s comeback material in Stockport, with 10cc as his backing band.

Because of my, er, unfashionable taste in music (it’s usually abbreviated to ‘bad’) I have always loved a well crafted song, many of which fall into the cheesy category. Neil Sedaka has written loads that I love.
I’d love you to listen to and appreciate the chords in Laughter In The Rain. He essentially forces a key change between the verse and chorus and it’s glorious.
You’ll find other terrific bits of tune structure in Love Will Keep Us Together, Our Last Song Together and more. I don’t expect younguns to actually like these songs, but you can appreciate the hell out of them.

*****

Feb 26: Dreadfully sad news, the death of Rob Grant of Red Dwarf fame. I met him back in the day when I worked on Red Dwarf Smegazine and have long been a fan of his work, including brilliant little-seen sitcom The Strangerers. I believe a new RD book by him is on its way, he seemed to be plugging it just this month, and I’m glad he’s left such good work to remember him by.


Feb 26: For what it’s worth, comic fans, the Air b n b I’m staying in, a chalet at the foot of someone’s garden, has framed copies of Gambit on the wall. I have no idea, nor do they, of any comic connections with me or them. Just thought I’d share.


March 25: Happiness is finding a glitch in Zoom that actually works in your favour. They have a security feature which means that, when you take a screengrab, everyone's names disappear. Which is a real bugger when the only reason you're taking a screengrab is so you can remember everyone's names. However last night, at a meeting of the Society of Authors' Comics Creators Network, I found that, when Zoom has a notice up on the screen advertising its Ai assistant (which I do not want to use), it overrides the name-removing function, so there's a small window where you can snap everyone's names. Little things.






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